Volume 25 Issue 4, April 2024

A study in Nature describes how single-cell expression data can be used to understand gene regulatory landscapes in bacteria.

Lan et al. report a high-throughput method for single-cell sequencing of diverse microbial communities.

Kylie R. James discusses a paper by Moor et al. that described a transcriptional gradient along the intestinal axis using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Shinichi Morishita recalls a seminal publication by Weber and Myers, who in 1997 proposed a direct whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach to tackle the human genome.

To successfully invade bacteria, bacteriophages and other mobile genetic elements must overcome numerous types of bacterial defence systems. Here, the authors review the discovery and mechanisms of direct inhibitors of bacterial defence systems, as well as their applications in biotechnology.

In this Review, Hananya et al. discuss how designer chromatin containing specific patterns of post-translational modifications is being used to study the mechanisms underlying the epigenetic regulation of gene expression.

In this Review, Hwang and co-authors outline single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques that can be used in living cells to visualize individual molecules involved in the spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. This Review also delves into the biological insights gained through these methodologies.

This Perspective reviews large-scale genomics and longitudinal phenomics efforts and the insights they can provide into wellness. The authors describe their vision for the transformation of the current health care from disease-oriented to data-driven, wellness-oriented and personalized population health.